beluga

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

a few days in the Silver City area are not enough

We only planned a few days here, obviously a mistake on my part. Lots of great places to hike or stroll or bird and plenty of interesting little shops in the artsy, colorful, historic and slightly shabby downtown district. And....it seems Silver City is a bit of a foodie place but we missed the window to have a meal at 1zero6 (it's only open on weekends and a reservation is mandatory a few weeks in advance). We did manage to snag a few goodies at Diane's Deli and Bakery (with the emphasis on Bakery.....) for dessert however.

who doesn't love Mexican pastries?

Silver City Museum

wonderful adaptive reuse

Dave can't resist lilacs....

zzzzz

One day we took the 93 mile "Trail of the Mountain Spirits" (a national scenic byway) north past the old mining settlement of Pinos Altos, into the Gila National Forest wilderness, had lunch at Lake Roberts, crossed the swiftly flowing teal green Gila River numerous times, hiked up to see the fantastic Gila Cliff Dwellings and back home past one of the world's largest continually operating open pit copper mine in Santa Ana. What a day we had!

the Buckhorn Saloon in Pinos Altos

at the dam on Lake Roberts

Gila River

walking along a quiet path through the woods below the Cliff Dwellings

see the first cave above? that's our destination

now on the path high above, approaching the dwellings

After we finished crawling around and through the cliff dwellings, talking with the Ranger's stationed in and about them and then hiking back down to the jeep we took a little detour down to the Gila River to walk along a couple of its beaches.

distant view of the Santa Rita mine seeming to grow out of its surroundings

Today, our last day here, we decided to spend it hiking with Lewis and doing a bit of bird watching, which may be mutually exclusive. Tune in tomorrow.

I agree with Gay that Silver City certainly looks colorful. Remind me of all the colors of Bisbee. What a great drive! I really enjoy old mine towns and the color variety of the mines themselves. Nice to see you got to explore the cliff dwellings. Thanks for sharing what we missed. Not sure when we might get back to that area seeing it took us almost seven years to get near there the first time. So glad my boy got a special day:) Safe travels...east!

Bill's mom was born in Silver City, but we've yet to make it for a visit. I know we'll love it after enjoying all your pics. I love that second one of hodge podge structures and the contrast of the Murray Hotel - wonderful!! The cliff dwellings are beautiful and look so peaceful. I'm hoping we'll see some when we get to Utah. Lewis looks so regal :-)

Wow, enjoying all your photos especially with Dave within the frame, very clever. This city has been suggested to us but was never in our route, now we have to visit it soon thanks to your advance visit.